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Step one

So before I hurt myself a couple weeks ago, I tried Ray’s routine which was loosely based upon my GUTS mini-workout.

Ray turned it into 5 rounds of fun. Each work round is three minutes long where you do a certain amount of dips, pull ups and push ups. You use good form, the sets have to be unbroken and you have to finish each round within the three minute time limit. You have two minute rest periods between the rounds. If you finish early, that extra time gets tacked onto your rest period.

So when I tried this a couple weeks ago I used Ray’s starting point, which was 20 dips, 10 pull ups and 25 push ups per round. I was stunned when I failed in round 3 during the dips.

So this time around I dropped my per movement numbers by 2 reps so each round I was doing 18 dips, 8 pull ups and 23 push ups.

This time around I tried to give myself some extra time between the different movements early on instead of banging them out back to back. Even so, in the first couple rounds I had a bunch of time to spare. I felt pretty good.

When I cleared the dip hurdle in round three I felt even better but I knew the last two rounds were going to be a struggle. I made it through round 4 but it required pauses inside the sets. When I was done I had less than 30 seconds left over.

Round 5 was a bitch, especially the dips and the push ups. The last 3 dips required me to lock out my elbows awkwardly at the top to give my tri’s a breather. I barely got rep 18.

I started the push ups with exactly one minute left on the clock, I knew time was going to be tight because I was thoroughly gassed. The last 5 reps I wanted to just hang up in plank position to let the lactic acid subside but I knew I didn’t have much time. As I groaned out rep 23 I hit the timer. I had exactly ONE second left, no shit.

I popped up excitedly and said “Fck yes!” a little louder than I should have in a public gym. I was not sure if I could pull this off, even with less reps. I definitely looked at my Bar-barians bracelet more than once during the sets to give me a kick in the ass.

So according to Ray’s outline, the next step is for me to do the attempt again at the same rep count. If I can complete it successfully twice in a row then I start creeping the numbers back up.